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Solomon Cormier

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According to
eMarketer, content delivered via digital video and TV advertising is projected to follow its current upward trend after a strong first quarter in 2019. These numbers include TV and
video advertising delivered across a multitude of platforms. So, what does this mean for marketing departments in all businesses, of all sizes, in various industries throughout the United States?

Faster internet speeds and easier streaming capabilities have opened the door for better digital video experiences. As consumers demonstrate an unending appetite for video content, brands are pushing their marketing departments to ramp up production and develop campaigns that deliver results.

As the production side of video becomes more cost-effective for SMBs to consider, a greater challenge facing these campaigns is ensuring that the video content messaging aligns with the voice and marketing goals of the company. When it comes to following video best practices, brands must make sure this content satisfies the desires of their target audience.

No industry understands this better than Hollywood. If you're looking for ways to optimize your video messaging for your target customer base, you can glean inspiration from the movie production studios.

Video has been a major buzzword in digital marketing for some time now, but sometimes it's necessary to step back and remember all the factors that make it such a powerful branding tool, and why you focused so much of your ad budget on video in the first place.

With YouTube reaching 1.5 billion visitors each month, it's hard to ignore video's influence on society and culture. Have you considered how a video marketing strategy can help your business? Here are just a few ways that video can bulk up your brand.

As the cost of video production drops, video marketing has become a more viable strategy for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). But newcomers to this medium might mistake an online video strategy for a digital version of TV advertising.

While some of the video products available online bear similarities to TV advertising — namely the short ads appearing before, during and after online videos — digital channels for video marketing are far more sophisticated and complex than their TV counterparts. That presents an opportunity for brands to more effectively market themselves, but only if they understand the right way to create and manage these marketing campaigns.

The best practices for YouTube advertising are nothing like the strategies used for advertising on other platforms. Not only are brands creating video content specific to the platform, but YouTube offers several ways to incorporate supplemental ads into the experience of a single video.

This functionality can provide you with additional opportunities to drive customer actions in the form of multiple video views, ad clicks and referrals to your business website. Clickable ads inserted into a video are at the heart of this advertising strategy.

Here are some basic guidelines to help you make better use of these unique mid-roll ad solutions.

Want to get audiences talking about your brand? New research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that you should ensure your ad strategy includes over-the-top (OTT) devices and airs during programs people watch together.

People are not only more likely to talk about the products or brands they see, they're also 10 percent more likely to change their minds about the products they see when co-viewing on an OTT device rather than linear TV, according to the recent report.

OTT Co-Viewing Is a Powerful Trend

So why does co-viewing (particularly with OTT devices) yield such great results? The IAB noted that this activity is more common "among younger viewers, and with strong brand engagement." Given that a Media Math study concluded that 64 percent of millennials reported being brand loyal — or more brand loyal than their parents — it's no surprise that these younger audiences are more engaged with OTT ads.

Since the dawn of television, brands have used the platform to successfully deliver their messages directly to viewers' homes. From small, local businesses to global organizations, television advertising has been a staple of the traditional media mix for brands for generations. But over the past decade, TV consumption has changed dramatically — especially among one particular group.

The Challenge of the Unreachables

Coined by Heart & Science CEO Scott Hagedorn as "the unreachables" in a Wall Street Journal article, a significant portion of millennials and Gen Xers are shying away from traditional means of consuming television. Instead, these adults watch TV programs through apps on mobile devices and through streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

It's no secret that film and television content is migrating to the internet at a rapid pace. When's the last time you logged on to Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube, Sling TV, CBS All Access or Hulu? Yesterday? An hour ago?

YouTube can be a tricky platform for marketers to understand and engage. In some ways, it functions a lot like a social media platform — and yet it's also the second-largest online search engine, after YouTube's owner, Google.

Thanks, in some part, to its early rise and popularity among younger consumers, YouTube has a reputation for serving a younger audience. Content geared toward millennials often seems like a natural fit for YouTube. As for content targeted to baby boomers? Many marketers would say there are better channels to reach that demographic.

However, new research into YouTube demographics shows that these audience assumptions are way off base. Here's a look at the numbers, and what it means for brand marketers.

It's official: "cord cutters" and "cord-nevers" (the industry nicknames for consumers who either no longer subscribe to cable TV or never have) are more than just a niche group. A 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that 19 percent of adults in the 18-to-29 age range have become cord cutters, dropping cable or satellite TV service, and another 16 percent of those surveyed have never had a traditional subscription-TV package. Clearly, these are some staggering statistics, and while some marketers may feel a bit uneasy looking at this trend, there's no reason to hit the panic button, as there are some practical ways marketers can still reach and influence this demographic.